A Republican state senator is pushing for Indiana’s public school students to start the school day by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

Senate education committee chairman Dennis Kruse of Auburn has filed legislation that would let school districts require the prayer to be recited, but would also grant broad exemptions.

The measure might have little chance of winning approval since the Senate’s leader has assigned it to the rules committee, which rarely advances bills.

But it’s part of a broader push by Kruse and other lawmakers to put religion in Indiana’s public schools.

Kruse sponsored a bill last year seeking to allow schools to teach creationism, the belief that life was created as described in the Bible. This year, he’s seeking to allow questioning by teachers of scientific principles like evolution.

After having a traumatic Cesarean section delivery of her first child, Parker, in 2008, 29-year-old Amy Russell of Bloomington, a farm manager at Soy Capital, was in counseling for posttraumatic stress disorder. She rebounded and got connected with a local chapter of the International Cesarean Awareness Network when expecting baby number two, a girl named Rachel. Rachel was a successful vaginal birth born in the hospital in 2010.

When 27-year-old Abbey Fish of Towanda had her first baby, Shane, in 2007, she didn’t know much about birth. Like most women, she went to the hospital to deliver. There she was given an epidural to ease her pain and the drug Pitocin to induce labor. All common hospital practices. After Shane was born, she did not see him for 12 hours because he was considered distressed.

Rebecca Butler, 34, and Tom Sheehan, 50, of Champaign wanted their daughter, Clementine, to be born at home. Rebecca's two other daughters, Sage and Lotus, were hospital births. Both were stressful and out-of-control experiences for Rebecca.

"More than 160 schools in Illinois, including South Side Elementary in Effingham, will participate in a multi-state earthquake drill next February.

During the "Great Central U.S. ShakeOut," residents of nine states - Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma - will practice the recommended "Drop, Cover and Hold On" protective actions. Participants will drop to the floor, take cover under sturdy furniture and hold on to it until the hypothetical shaking stops.

South Side Elementary's first- and second-grade students participate in earthquake drill once or twice a year, said Principal Amy Niebrugge.

"We present it as: We practice, just like, to become a better reader, we practice; to become better as a sport, we practice," she said. "So, for a drill, we're just practicing, so we know what to do."

Plus, students get to be a part of an event that has attracted nearly 640 schools from the region.

"I think it will be neat for the students to be involved in something that will be on the news," she said.

The hurt caused by Friday’s horrific shooting in Newtown, Connecticut goes beyond the victims killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Across the country, children are learning about the shooting, and they’re also being affected.

The mayor of Indianapolis announced Wednesday that the city is taking a major step toward energy independence. It plans to replace its entire non-police fleet with electric or hybrid vehicles by 2025, the first major U.S. city to do so.

The city will buy about 30 to 50 energy efficient cars each year to replace its 470 sedans. It estimates it will save $12,000 per vehicle.

City spokesman Marc Lotter said the mayor, a retired Marine and Gulf War veteran, wants to change the national discussion on energy and foreign policy.

"Our dependence on foreign oil is putting our troops' lives in harm's way, it's costing our taxpayers billions of dollars each year in military expenditures, and it's something we no longer have to do because the technology is there," Lotter said.

The city hopes to replace its heavy trucks, like trash collectors and fire engines, to run on Compressed Natural Gas, Lotter said. It also wants to work with car manufacturers to develop plug-in hybrid police cars.